Fabric washing and fulling machine



14, 1959 J. SERRACANT SELVAS 3,

FABRIC WASHING AND FULLING MACHINE Filed June 28, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Oct- 1969 J. sERRAcANT SELVAS 3,

FABRIC WASHING AND FULLING MACHINE Filed June 28, 1966 2 Sheet-Sheet 2 United States Patent C) 3,471,908 FABRIC WASHING AND FULLING MACHINE .los Serracant Selvas, Barcelona, Spain, assignor of onehalf to Ateliers Raxhon, S.A., Theux, Verviers, Belgium Filed June 28, 1966, Ser. No. 562,068 Claims priority, applicatiog7spain, July 10, 1965,

rm. or. Dll6c 17/02 US. Cl. 26--21 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention has as its aim a fabric washing and fulling machine, which is intended to minimize the deflections of the fabric on being made to undergo a densifying action in the longitudinal sense, and thereby to increase the effectiveness and speed of the fulling or milling action.

In existing forms of construction of fulling machines, and for a given size of the retaining box, a great proportion of the force applied by the rollers is lost owing to the bending deflections of the fabric within the box due to the fact that the volume of the box is excessive and allows the fabric to assume any random position. If, in an attempt to eliminate this shortcoming by reducing the volume of the retaining box of the fulling machine, the tongue pieces, strips or the like or brought closer to a sector of the rollers which is very close to the contact area between the two rollers, then serious problems arise in respect of mechanical adjustment between the rollers and tongue pieces, with the practical result that the fabric may be nipped between the two and may be pierced thereby, so that this method is not applicable.

If, on the other hand, one wishes to accomplish extensive fulling actions in a conventional fulling mill, the weight of the retaining box may be increased appreciably, engendering a powerful reaction of the fabric against the feed rollers, so that the latter whose surfaces are very hard and smooth tend to slip on the fabric, thus losing the effect of extension or contraction of the fabric in the retaining box and causing tearing of the fabric owing to considerable friction. This disadvantage could be eliminated by employing rollers covered with a material of lesser hardness, such as rubber for example, but the greater deformability of the latter has the result, when a powerful reaction of the fabric acts on the rollers, of causing the rollers to be deformed more than appropriate, thereby increasing the spacing between the tongue piece or the like of the retaining box and the rollers, whereby holes may be torn in the fabric.

The object of the present invention is to incorporate improvements in existing fulling or milling machines, which are intended to eliminate the shortcomings set forth hereinbefore in order to enable the fulling action to be performed more quickly and more intensively without risk of damage to the fabric.

A further object of the invention resides in reducing the height of the fabric retaining box to a minimum, starting from the same point of contact between the feed 'ice rollers of the falling machine, and to this end, the feed rollers employed are grooved and preferably endowed with a covering of rubber or other appropriate resilient material, and the grooves of these rollers have arranged in them convex elongated elements having a longer radius of curvature than that of the rollers, and extending tangentially at the point of contact of the rollers. By virtue of this arrangement, the tractive or compressive stress exerted by the rollers on the fabric may be exploited fully, since the deflections of the fabric are retricted to a minimum by the limited height of the retaining box, with the said elements forming an antideflection device by establishing a minimum angle of entry to the retaining box.

Resilient rollers may thus be employed, to prevent slipping on the fabric irrespective of its degree of humidity, the said elements housed in the grooves of the rollers being arranged to prevent nipping of the fabric.

The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show an embodiment of the invention but in no restrictive sense.

FIGURE 1 is a schematic illustration of a fulling machine embodying the said improvements.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged scale view of a detail in a section taken through the plane IIII of FIGURE 1.

FIGURES 3 and 4 schematically show details of some modifications.

In the fulling machine shown in FIGURE 1, the fabric 1 arranged to run continuously, rises in manner known per se, passing through the guide 2 of a sizing or dressing device, and over the roller 3, then between the squeezing rollers 4 and 5, entering the retaining box formed by the plate 6 which is fastened to the frame of the machine, and the cover 7 which is hingedly fastened to the frame at a point 8, with the cloth descending from the box to the tub 9 containing the bath, in order to repeat the sequence.

According to the invention the rollers 4 and 5 have a number of circumferential grooves 10 arranged transversely of the rollers in which are situated many convex elongated elements 11 and 12, these latter being in two sets, of which the set of elements 11 is arranged in the grooves of the upper roller 4, whereas the set of elements 12 is arranged in the grooves of the lower roller 5. The said elements 11 and 12 have a greater radius of curvature than that of the said rollers, and are positioned tangentially at the point of contact of the said rollers.

The presence of the said elements 11 and 12 of convex shape in the grooves of the said rollers renders it possible to maintain a very small angle for the entry of the fabric into the said retaining box, with the consequence that the height of the said box may be reduced to a minimum, thus equally limiting the deflections of the fabric to a minimum. The fact that the vertex of the said angle coincides with the point of tangency of the said rollers, renders it possible moreover to equip the said rollers with a resilient surface, for example a covering of rubber, to prevent the fabric from slipping, and eliminate any risk of the fabric being nipped.

In the form of construction illustrated by way of example in FIGURE 1, the convex elements 12 coordinated with the lower roller 5 are fastened immovably on the machine frame, like the plate 6 of the said retaining box, whereas the elements 11 of the upper roller 4 are suspended by means of tie rods or the like 13 from the same spindle as the said upper roller. This spindle is vertically di-splaceable in its mountings, and the elements 11 are articulated moreover by means of a small rod 14 connected to the same fixed hinging point 8 as the cover 7 of the said retaining box, in such manner that they may follow the upward and downward displacements of the roller 4 caused by passage of the fabric between the said rollers while remaining parallel to each other.

This arrangement may be modified freely according to particular requirements. In the form of construction shown in FIGURE 3 for example, the elements 12 of the lower roller 5 are mounted immovably together with the plate 6 of the said retaining box, as in the previous case, whereas the elements 11 of the upper roller 4 are mounted independently of the said roller 4. Said elements 11 have their leading extremity hinged at the infeed side of the said rollers at a point 15, whereas their trailing extremity at the discharge side of the said rollers is acted upon by a downwardly directed force, illustrated by the arrow 16. Said force may be applied by means of a weight, a spring or by any other appropriate means, in such manner that these upper elements 11 may oscillate to facilitate the passage of the fabric between the said rollers, but independently of the displacement caused thereby of the upper roller 4.

As shown in FIGURE 4, the whole may also be arranged in such manner that the fabric performs an essentially vertical descending motion, the rollers 4 and 5 having their spindles situated in the same horizontal plane and being arranged to be displaceable in thi plane under the action of thrust devices which tend to apply the said rollers against each other. In this case, the elements 11 and 12 corresponding to the said rollers, have their leading extremities hinged at points 17 and 18 at the infeed side of the said rollers, Whereas their trailing extremities at the discharge side of the said rollers are acted upon by opposed forces 19 and 20 which tend to bring the said elements closer to each other.

The present invention is not necessarily limited to the forms of embodiment described in the preceding statement and illustrated in the accompanying drawings by way of example but in no restrictive sense, and modifications of detail and technical equivalent devices may be incorporated therein without departing from the inventive scope of the disclosure.

I claim:

1. A fabric washing and fulling machine comprising in combination:

(a) two cooperating fabric feeding rollers having circumferential grooves arranged transversely of said rollers,

(b) a fabric retaining box disposed at one side of said rollers and receiving the fabric fed by said rollers as it passes from a vat containing a treatment bath through which the fabric passes,

(0) means for producing a longitudinal compression in a portion of the fabric substantially free from puckers or ripples comprising two groups of elongated convex elements cooperating with said rollers, and whose curvatures are less than that of said feed rollers,

((1) said elements extending from points situated in front of their respective feed rollers to said fabric retaining box and tangential to said rollers through said grooves and p (e) said groups being slightly divergent at the outlet in the direction of the forward movement of the fabric.

2. A fabric washing and fulling machine according to claim 1 wherein one of said groups associated with one of said feed rollers are mounted fixably in relation to their corresponding feed roller and the other group associated with the other feed roller are mounted oscillatably independently of their corresponding feed roller, and means are provided for applying pressure to said other group to bring them closer to said fixably mounted group to vary the size of the opening formed by said two groups of elements for the passage of the fabric.

3. A fabric washing and fulling machine according to claim 1, wherein the elements corresponding to each of said two groups are mounted for oscillation as a group independently of the other group.

4. A fabric Washing and fulling machine according to claim 1, wherein the elements corresponding to each of said two groups are mounted for oscillation independent- -1y as a group in relation to the other group, and both of said groups of elements are each provided with pressure means for bringing said two groups of elements nearer to each other.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,273,852 7/1918 Harris 26-21 FOREIGN PATENTS 641,811 2/ 1937 Germany.

9,088 1841 Great Britain. 16,348 1894 Great Britain. 737,664 9/ 1955 Great Britain.

ROBERT R. MACKEY, Primary Examiner 

